Shit! Just as we thought we were out of the woods! TNA’s official website has a revised preview of tonight’s Impact and a new graphic to boot (see above) – where they refer to the Diva formerly known as Victoria, as Tara.
In all earlier references, they had referred to her as ‘Lisa Marie’, which appeased us fans but it looks like they’ve gone ahead and jumped on the ‘Tara’ bandwagon anyway. A big step back, if you ask me.
‘Lisa Marie’ works just fine and it’s much better than bland, boring ‘Tara’. The reason behind the name switch is because like WWE before them, TNA wants to have full copyright ownership of the ringname Lisa uses in TNA so if she were to leave, she wouldn’t be able to piggyback on the back of the name. In a report earlier this week, one wrestling news site suggested that Lisa isn’t the caliber of ‘top stars’ like Kurt Angle or Bobby Lashley, who were allowed to retain their real names.
Funny that considering the Knockouts segment last week, which featured Lisa, was the highest rated portion of last week’s Impact. Furthermore, Shane Douglas – a barely there midcarder for TNA and WCW – is back under his real name, if I had to argue, I’d say Lisa is a far bigger star than the now fat Douglas, who made his return last week too.
It just goes to show that TNA is no better than WWE and doesn’t consider women’s wrestling a draw. While WWE’s ratings do show that male stars outdraw the female ones, in TNA it’s the other way around. If TV ratings counted – and they should – the Knockouts of TNA should be treated like stars over the men. But alas, wrestling is a “men’s sport” and there will always be unfair prejudice against women in it.
TNA had the opportunity to prove they take women’s wrestling seriously. They could have really pushed Lisa, who is without a doubt a hot commodity – male or female – and make her their top babyface under her real name, giving her the same ‘star treatment’ as Angle, Lashley and Douglas. Instead they prove that they are no better than WWE and consider Lisa ‘just another Knockout’ by opting to change her name.
